The people of rural Pennsylvania don’t need an expert to tell us that our economy has been flat on its back.   Or that our young people, discouraged about job prospects, are leaving our communities in droves.  But hope is not lost.

Pennsylvania has been blessed with an abundance of natural resources, among them natural gas.  Natural gas is a clean-burning fuel that can provide this country – especially the Eastern Seaboard – with a big part of the solution to our energy needs. 
To ensure a reliable supply of Pennsylvania natural gas to eastern population centers, we need to construct a safe and secure pipeline, known as the MARC I Line, across the Northern Tier.  The 39-mile-long proposed pipeline under review by state and federal officials will be environmentally friendly:  Just 30 inches in diameter, buried approximately three feet underground, and designed to protect resources and avoid streams and wetlands.  In those instances when running across a body of water will be unavoidable, great care has been taken to ensure that it will be done with the least amount of disruption.
As an avid sportsman, I can attest that the pipeline company, Central New York Oil & Gas (CYNOG), has worked with sportsmen’s groups, as well as the federal government, to ensure that the project doesn’t hurt hunting and fishing venues or unduly harm game animals or fish. CYNOG also is working with landowners along the path of the MARC I Line.
Building the MARC I pipeline means good-paying jobs for Pennsylvanians:  Some 600 construction, pipefitter, and electrical workers will be hired, many of them for up to a year.  Some two-thirds of the project’s roughly $300 million price tag will stay right here in Pennsylvania with local workers and businesses.  It would mean a huge shot-in-the-arm for our economy – and help position Pennsylvania to benefit from what promises to be a robust future market for natural gas.  Constructing such critical energy infrastructure, moreover, will benefit Pennsylvania consumers by optimizing supply availability.
But that’s only if the pipeline gets built.  Pennsylvania’s business community has been solidly behind the project, working hand-in-hand with CYNOG.  State officials have also been supportive.
The federal government is another matter.  Right now, the project is snagged in a bureaucratic tug-of-war between regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  FERC just completed a comprehensive 300-page environmental assessment that examined every facet of the pipeline’s construction – and concluded it is environmentally sound and in full compliance with federal safety standards.  Yet EPA is insisting that the project be held up – potentially for a very long time – while it conducts a lengthy environmental impact statement.   EPA is overreaching:  FERC has traditionally had jurisdiction over natural gas pipelines, having approved some 10,000-miles of pipeline across the country in recent years.
An EPA review of the MARC I pipeline would be redundant.  Any further delay in the construction of the pipeline will cost Pennsylvania sorely needed jobs and could hurt our ability to compete for natural gas transmission contracts in the future.
If you agree, please write, email, or call Senators Casey and Toomey and Congressmen Thompson and Marino.   Please urge them to have FERC issue its certification.  Pennsylvania needs the MARC I pipeline.  Now.
Anthony J.  Ventello is the Executive Director of the Central Bradford Progress Authority, Industrial Development Corporation and Industrial Development Authority.